Jonathan Boda Postmodern Generation February 20th, 2012 The Swimming Pool, The Path, The Well In these

stories and the rest of the Loory book, a recurring theme seems to be humanities dissatisfaction with what appears to be truth and their constant need for validation from others. All three of these stories are fairly disappointing; they leave something to be desired. The writer may have meant to tell them in this way so that the reader can discover for themself some personal meaning, or maybe it was to relay the theme of our human nature. There is no way to really tell aside from interpretations of the stories though they may be biased. The Swimming Pool, is a story which shows that humanity can neither appreciate nor understand without destroying some semblance of innocence and peace. The Path, shows how we may strive our whole lives for material wealth and approval of others, yet when struck by moments of intense vulnerability we flee and lose sight of what was once natural to us. Finally, The Well, this story is an example of our constant need for validation and our inability to accept restrictions. Regardless of what was intended to be passed along, each character of these three stories show inability to accept the reality posed to them and instead seek validation of their own abilities from others. To start with a general summary, The Swimming Pool, is a story of a man who believes there is dark creature or entity below the surface of a pool and does all in his power to close the pool, only once it is closed does he realize what he has simultaneously destroyed and loosed upon the world. This could be an interpretation of the loss of innocence and beginnings of doubt once someone recognizes the hidden dangers in life. Or maybe it is a representation of self-

discovery and the way it can change your views of the world around you. The story could apply to either meaning in my opinion. The man in this story is a classic example of paranoia, you could say that his fear was the reason he saw the monster in the pool. Or even that his fear created the monster in the pool, and when he had the pool closed he released his fear upon the world instead of allowing it to be contained. He may have thought he was doing a service for the community but his actions instead will only lead to endangering them. His need to prove this perceived danger and show everyone that he was right about the monster led to the destruction of both his own innocence and the innocence of others in terms of their knowledge of the danger. That is not to say his intentions were not good but his self-absorption served to let loose a danger upon the world. Next would be The Path. This is the story of a man who had it all. He was given everything; he had luck, a good job, and a family. Then he has an accident which knocks him off his path. He doesnt know what to do, essentially losing his purpose and then his family leaves. He attempts suicide but when he shoots he finds that the bullets do no harm and its as if they phased right through him. He then leaves his home and wanders through life passing through objects as if he did not exist. He was so absorbed in his loss of a track that he ceased to exist to life around him, either that or it ceased to exist to him. He sought out material advancement and the right things in life but when he recognizes his own mortality he ceases to care for what he had. It is a story of finding meaning in life, his life had only superficial meaning before based on what we are told, and when he has his accident those superficial pursuits mattered not to him. Since his life had little truth before the accident once he tries to find meaning he winds up aimless and finds that life matters little to him. His pursuit of truth took him away from what he

had and his contentment, not to say that is bad but more that his dissatisfaction led to his downfall. Finally, The Well, while it would be feasible to say this story ended happily, based on the postmodern characters desire to feel validated, it would be easy to assume it didnt. The story starts with a boy playing hide and seek falling into a well, as he feels himself beginning to sink beneath the water he suddenly realizes he can fly. He rises out of the hole and seeks out his friends who had long since given up and quit playing. As the boy tells his friends what happened they question how he got out of the well and subsequently they ask him to show them he really can fly. The boy fails to prove either and his friends laugh at him for it. Later that night the boy believes he can recreate the situation and so jumps into the well, but once there he finds himself failing and instead of flying he begins to sink. The boys father hears his cries from their home and rushes to and down the well to save the boy, as the father finds his son not breathing he panics and desperately tries to exit the well. Then he too flies out of the well. The boys pride and anger at his friends lack of concern and trust in him may have ended his life. For the sake of being able to prove those friends wrong and himself right he could have caused both his own and his fathers death. This should speak volumes about the price to pay for vanity, the boy could simply have accepted that he just gets that one chance to fly but instead he feels that risking his life will allow him to fly again. He lacked an understanding of the situation, which combined with his need to be recognized as right by others resulted in his downfall. Each of these stories features similar character flaws or messages to them, that sometimes vanity can lead us to destruction and that sometimes things appear to be the truth simply because they are. When I said that these three stories were disappointing, it was not in terms of the story structure or meaning. I was instead disappointed in the characters, for their shared flaws were

not only destructive to themselves but also to those they cared for. I would say that the two biggest flaws of these stories were the issue of vanity and overabundance of doubt, yet each character connected these two flaws with a single larger flaw which was self-absorption. The postmodern condition seems to feature a great deal of this, too many are so enthralled with their own life that they miss out on the lives around them and may find themselves stumbling into a great deal of trouble. After all, it is hard to care for others and truth and nearly any part of life if you spend the whole time wrapped up in yourself, you eventually become fairly apathetic.